Boeing launches Dreamliner tracking tool for Google Earth

Dennis Schaal, Skift

- Jun 28, 2013 5:27 am

Skift Take

Flight Tracker is an avgeek delight, and a clever marketing tool for Boeing after months of negative publicity over the 787 Dreamliner’s battery woes. Boeing hopes the tool will put a charge into its ongoing sales efforts.

— Dennis Schaal

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Now that those once-battery-challenged Boeing 787 Dreamliners are back in the air, you can track their whereabouts in real-time in Google Earth with the launch of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner Flight Tracker.

This is a nice, geeky marketing tool for Boeing as it seeks to increase Dreamliner orders and compete against the recently launched Airbus 350.

A quick look at Flight Tracker last night, and you could get details on 20 airborne Dreamliners operated by Ethiopian Airlines, Japan Airlines, LOT Polish Airlines, United Airlines, Qatar Airways, All Nippon Airways, and Japan Airlines.

Flight Tracker provides each flight’s details (airline, flight number, origin, destination, time enroute, and flight status); the ability to book a flight on the airline’s website, and a view of the flight in Google Earth.

Regarding Google Earth, you can view each flight in a 360-degree view, in a passenger view from inside the aircraft, and a Google Eartth view as you watch the 787 Dreamliner progress toward each destination.

There isn’t any indicator of whether each flight is on time or late, but, hey, this is obviously a geeky, marketing play.

There is a social aspect to the new tool as you can share tweets and posts, and “join the Dreamliner conversation” on Twitter, Google +, Facebook and other social media outlets. There are also live events to attend.

Boeing must really feel its battery problems are behind it as it boldly depicts the whereabouts of airlines’ Dreamliner fleets around the world in real-time.

Boeing hopes — and it’s very likely that — Flight Tracker will monitor many more Dreamliner aircraft in the years to come.

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Photo Credit: You could view the progress of Boeing 787 Dreamliner flight UAL33 last night from Chicago O'Hare to Houston Bush International using Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner Flight Tracker tool in Google Earth. Boeing